How long had it been since Dan escaped? It was the only question he asked himself as he ran through the forest to escape from Soppio and its defenders.
He still couldn’t believe it; he and his men were wiped out by two individuals. He needed to warn Noin, to warn Hughes.
He coughed up more blood, this cough attack forcing him to stop. He fell to the ground and finally answered the question he had asked himself over and over in his mind.
“It’s… only been ten… minutes.”
Ten grueling and agonizing minutes; he was going to die while also failing his master.
As his soul flickered away, memories of a different era and time period played in his eyes. He was a young man in a modern world, one where he was ostracized for loving the wrong type of people.
He hated his life and chose to end it.
And then he woke up here, in this world as a slave. A slave chosen by Hughes.
“Was that world… a vision or a hallucination?” he thought as his vision disappeared, those were his memories from when he was on earth.
He didn't understand or really care about them, if anything those memories strengthened his loyalty and love for his master.
In this world, the life of a slave under Hughes, the man he loved, was superior to the life he had known, in a world that didn’t allow him the choice to love.
He just wished he didn’t die letting his master down.
A dark ather crawled around the ground, like a dark grotesque blob of energy trying to form together.
“Ahh…uuughhhhhhh…” the dark blob moaned out, as if it was in pain as it inched closer and closer.
“I saw you…. You….are strong,” the blob said, drawing out every word as it placed its form on Dan's body and started to climb up to his face.
“I’ve been following you and the Elf girl since you two entered this forest. But I can’t wait any longer.”
Dan's death was halted as the grotesque blob violently entered Dan’s mouth. He was being possessed by the creature and the possession was even more painful than Dan losing his arm, his life and Hughes.
His blown arm regenerated and the wound in his neck closed. He screamed a blood curdling scream at the forced creation of his new arm.
“You are my vessel now,” the voice roared in his psyche.
He thought it was over after the voice’s declaration, but it was far from over. The dark ather expanded and covered his eyes. He couldn’t see at all anymore and instead felt a burning sensation.
It was like his eyeballs were melting, or like they were being branded with iron; it took two minutes, two excruciatingly painful minutes but it finally stopped and he could see out of his eyes again.
Almost immediately, he could feel it. He could feel something etched into his eyes, burned into it.
The Roman numeral for ten.
X, could be felt, could be seen in the irises of his eyes.
///
The two battle sisters had finished their little squabble and were sharing a bag of chips. Sanosuke took his time to speak with Inari privately about team Freya’s proposal. While it didn’t truly change her mind, Inari was beginning to see things differently.
The townspeople then returned from their hiding places and together with Sanosuke and Charlie, started to clean up the destruction around the town as best as they could.
“Sanosuke persuaded me, only slightly but still… I don’t want you to give up your only chance to speak with father and gain the answers you deserve,” Inari said, grabbing a few chips from the bag and eating them one by one in a lady-like manner.
“I don’t need to speak with father, I’m over all of that,” Freya replied but her terrible acting skills and her tone of voice gave away the emptiness of her words. She took a handful of chips and stuffed her face with them.
Inari stared at Freya, displeased with her. “You told me yourself you missed him. I… don’t want to be the reason you lose.”
In Inari’s mind their alliance would end when they were the last two standing, meaning that if Sanosuke won, she would be the reason Freya lost her only chance to speak with God.
“And I don’t want to stand around and fight in this damn competition knowing you could lose your only chance to go back to Ukemochi.”
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The two laughed slightly at each other. They both were thinking the same thing and wanted the same thing. They just wanted the other to succeed and have their chance at winning.
“Tell me sister, you had no inclination to win at all, did you?” Inari hushed her voice and covered her mouth with the sleeve of her kimono.
Freya nodded as she watched Charlie take a break and started to entertain the kids of Soppio by playing around with them.
“All I truly want is to change, for Charlie to change and believe in herself.” Freya grabbed her battle sister's left hand and cradled it between both of hers.
“And for you to be reunited with your love. This is my purpose, the purpose I wanted to fulfill since we became sisters… So please?” As she pleaded to her battle sister her eyes and expression looked just like the Freya of old.
The one before the Great Rebellion, the one whose resolve burned brightly.
Inari made an amusing but frustrated noise “Moooooeee! Okay fine, I’ll make this exception! But only because you are my one and only battle sister.”
Inari placed her hand on Freya's face and gave her a smile of appreciation, she then squeezed Freya's cheeks and made her lips pucker like a fish. Inari laughed at the funny face she was forcing the annoyed Freya to make.
“I wish to form a battle pact,” Inari shouted.
Just then time suddenly stopped for everyone else other than the two deities and their two retainers.
A pink explosion appeared, Damaris twirled in the air and did her peace sign pose at the four.
Freya physically cringed, remembering how she acted to her and Achilles last. She wanted to hide away from her and the shame she felt.
“Hey-o!”
She quickly hovered towards the two deities, pulling out a scroll and pen from her Fanny pack.
“Judge Achilles wants alliances to matter, so by entering an alliance or battle pact your retainers both get a cool new ability the other deity gives, which are called divine unisons.” Damaris gave the pen to Freya first; she was acting like her normal bubbly self.
This only caused Freya to cringe even more, was the angel just not mad anymore? Or was she doing this on purpose to make her feel even worse about what happened? Grabbing the pen, Damaris rolled the scroll open and pointed to where Freya needed to sign.
“Sign here, you both need to agree how the battle pact term ends.”
Inari grabbed the pen and signed next. “I think me and Freya can agree our alliance should end when our retainers are the last two standing.”
Freya nodded, Damaris grabbed the pen from Inari and then wrote the term end. She rolled up the scroll and then closed her hands together, causing the scroll to disappear in between her hands.
Just as the pink haired angel girl clasped her hands together, screens popped out of Charlie and Sanosuke's bracers.
You are in a battle pact with Inari and her retainer. This pact makes it so you cannot harm each other, if you were to somehow break this pact or betray the other retainer. You will automatically be eliminated from the Tryfing.
Alliance pact Divine Unisons
Inari’s Blessing: Inari’s retainer can make one weapon of your choosing and convert it into a godsend. This godsend has all the power and properties of a true godsend and can seriously damage or kill a retainer. This godsend is permanent and does not use ather to sustain itself.
Freya’s Blessing: Freya’s retainer resolve is currently locked. Until Freya’s retainer believes in themselves more this blessing will continue to be inactive.
Both Charlie and Freya huddled together in shame as they silently cried. Charlie herself was even more upset over everything. She greatly benefited from Inari’s blessing but could only summon one godsend at a time which limited her strategies and how she could fight.
Yet because of how weak she was, how inadequate she felt about herself and her previous life, the man she came to help win the Tryfing got no benefit from their alliance.
“Yeah…this is…frustrating…” the static voice said, it was starting to have a unique tone of voice to Charlie. It was a masculine voice, but it wasn’t one that Charlie could remember or had ever heard before. The voice still hadn’t materialized completely.
“Don’t worry about it too much, Charlie! You are doing great so far; you’ll unlock your abilities soon. Achilles believes in you too and his belief means something to other deities.” Damaris flew to Charlie and ruffled her hair.
Maybe I’m just a jealous idiot, Freya thought.
“Just having you at my side is blessing enough, Charlie.” Sanosuke smiled and bowed at the young Norse girl; she really needed those words of encouragement… Her and her deity both needed to hear those words.
As Damaris waved goodbye Freya shouted out for her to wait, and she walked up to the angel looking quite embarrassed.
“ I… I’m sorry about how I acted towards you back on Elysium. You didn’t deserve that.” She looked Damaris in the eyes and waited for her judgment. Damaris smiled and then copied what Inari did previously, squishing the cheeks of her face. Damaris laughed as she made Freya’s lips pucker like a fish.
“H-ey!” As Freya objected Damaris kept laughing.
“Now we are even. Apology accepted, although I don’t hold grudges, anyways.” Damaris stuck her tongue out at the Norse deity as she let her go.
“And… I’m not going to lose to you,” Freya confidently declared. At first Damaris was confused and didn’t understand what Freya was implying. Inari leaned in to whisper something into Damaris’s ear; the expression on her changed a few times until the realization hit her.
“OHHHH!” she exclaimed, then gave a slight smirk towards Freya. “So you're my rival in the Tryfing of love?”
The two deities and the angel girl laughed together. Looking on at the three, Charlie also smiled, with Sanosuke standing next to Charlie watching the scene play out
“I’m glad Lady Freya picked me. I’m glad it's you and Lady Inari she wished to aid.” She bowed towards Sanosuke with immense respect.
Charlie watched the young man he respected bow to her; she was still hurt emotionally by how quickly she lost the momentum in battle.
She knew she would have died if not for Japan’s finest, the man she felt she needed to learn under.
“I wish to learn from you, Sanosuke-sama!”
It was a small embarrassing moment for the two retainers, but with time frozen, other than the celestial beings around them, who was there to judge them?
Sanosuke looked at the little girl who bowed and respected him in his culture; it wasn’t until now that he was able to truly think about his returned memories. The Charlie he remembered was a man, a sad lonely looking man.
Being a priest and living as long as he had, Sanosuke had learned how to read people and understand their feelings. In that hallway, where he met the man known as Charlie, he saw the pain the man was in.
The profound loneliness in the man's eyes…. In his soul. He saw a man who was crying out and looking for a guide… ANY guide to come and take him by the hand. He knew this because he had seen it before back on earth from NEETs (not in education, employment or training) and people known as Hikikomoris who were severely withdrawn from society and became recluses.
Whether by their own hands, their parents failing them or society itself, these men of Japan felt ostracized and alone—young men who turn to faith when they had no other recourse or plan, young men with no fathers or older brothers to guide them and push them in the right direction.
To take the first step of life… or end it all.
Yet here… the Charlie that stood in front of him was a little girl. Yet he could feel the same feelings that the man known as Charlie in the hallway had. This little girl was like the young men that would come to the shrines.
Before Sanosuke could answer the young Norse elf a screen popped out of his bracer.
Secondary objective unlocked, take a retainer under your wing. Cultivate and guide this young retainer to believe in themselves.
Sansouke was puzzled, was this even fair? He had always wondered when the secondary objective was going to be revealed… but like this?
He stared at the screen and then the determined face of Charlie, remembering his own despair and lack of faith in his religion and the Tryfing. Sanosuke couldn’t remember why but something happened in Elysium that made him lose hope.
An encounter with another retainer perhaps?
And it was Charlie from the hallway that helped give him that hope back. He was indebted to the young Norse elf in front of him and she probably didn’t even know what she did for him.
Also, what monster could say no to that face? he thought. He dismissed the screen and accepted the easiest secondary objective in Tryfing history.
“Then it should be… Sanosuke-sensei, no?” Sanosuke said.
Charlie lifted her head to look at Sanosuke, her new teacher, while Sanosuke looked into the eyes of his new student. He could see the same sad soul that he saw in the hallway, only this one was starting to strengthen itself.
It was strange to Sanosuke, it was like he was also seeing another person in Charlie's eyes, another soul within the little Norse elf’s soul—one that felt the same emotions and feelings that Charlie’s soul had.
“Yes, Sanosuke-sensei sounds a lot better,” Charlie replied with a big, cute smile, reminding Sanosuke of his grandson Kouta’ssmile.
Another screen popped out of Sanosuke’s bracer abruptly.
Secondary objective compete! Congratulations, you are the first retainer to complete their secondary objective. For completing this objective you have earned an extra reward after the Tryfing has concluded regardless of placement.
Sanosuke shook his head, this definitely felt like cheating to him. Yet he decided to ignore those feelings for the time being, after all his new pupil needed his guidance and he felt a debt that needed to be repaid.
The new master and student duo had formed.